I'm tired of bottling beer. For the past three weeks I've bottled a beer every weekend. First the
Smoking Gun Stout, then last week the MmmAlt, and tonight the
Pale Rye Ale. On the good side it means I've gone from a handfull of bottles of home brewed beer to six crates. Although I did start dipping into the stout last week, and yesterday I popped an Alt after just one week in the bottle. Not bad. The real test will be the Duesseldorfers in the office. The Pale Rye Ale is interesting. Floral, perfumey and spicey. Not sure if I like it yet, but then it has a little way to go.
I keep thinking about getting some corny kegs, but I do like the convenience of having bottles to throw in a bag and give to people, if not the inconvenience of two hours work sanitising, priming and filling about 40 bottles...
Oh, I didn't tell you about the Alt? It looked like this for 21 litres:
- 2kg Pilsner Malt
- 2.1kg Munich Malt
- 75g Black Malt
- 23g Hallertauer Perle (9.3%) boiled 60 min
- 25g Saaz (3.8%) boiled 20 min
- 1 tsp Irish Moss boiled 15 min
- 25g Saaz (3.8%) boiled 3 min
- German Ale K-97
It's certainly malty, not sure about the alty part yet.
5 comments:
The first time I started bottling, I wanted to give up the whole brewing thing there and then. It is soul destroying.
I'm going to hold off until I get my bottle drainer and the bottle washer attachment that goes on top so I can rinse and then sanitise quickly (I hope).
Don't bet on it. I've had a drainer and rinsing device for a couple of years now and it still takes time. One real time-saver is to use a no-rinse sanitiser, like Starsan or a thin bleach and vinegar solution, all in a big bucket so you can fit as many bottles as you can, soak for 5 mins and hang on the drainer. Done. Well, kinda done. :D I only use the rinser now when I'm doing a heavy wash with detergent.
I describe the technique I use here.
Bar, I'm stealing your Alt recipe. Always on the lookout for a good, malty beer, especially when the weather here is still cool.
Feel free! :D Just note that I've been getting crazy high efficiency (88% on this one) so my OG was 1.051. FG was 1.011, which wasn't as low as I thought, given a lowish mash temp (64 to 63°C), but it's not bad. You might need to adjust quantities, keeping the percentages of the grist the same. If you use BeerTools at all I can mail you the recipe.
I've been using ProMash for quite some time. Most of my efficiencies have been around 70-75%, but I should be able to plug in the data. If I end up with anything odd I'll give you a shout.
Maybe a recipe section on the blog is a necessity?
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